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Luminous Landscape (Click here) posted a very well written article about the NEX-7 video button issue. As you know it’s very easy to press the video button which is placed on the grip. And many here and on other websites asked Sony to release a firmware upgrade which could allow to disable or lock this button. After nine months there is still no answer from Sony and I 100% agree with Mark Dubovoy when he writes that this is “Unacceptable because when I spend my hard earned dollars on a product and the product has an obvious flaw that can probably be easily fixed by a simple firmware update, I feel that the company owes it to their customers to provide a fix as soon as possible.”

Marc now reports that he has found a “redneck” solution that makes uses of a rubber grommet mounted around the video button.

Michale Reichmann goes further in his Sony critic by pointing two more big issues we NEX-7 owners have to deal with:
“There is one other aspect to this issue that was also apparent since day one, and has been known to cause cardiac arrest among NEX-7 owners. This problem is that the NEX-7 inexplicably maintains two separate directory structures for its video and stills files. So, when you first discover that you have shot 20 minutes of the inside of your camera bag, and you delete the offending video to clear room on the card, the  camera displays – DELETING IMAGES. Note the plural!? Even if you are just deleting one video file, or one still image, it says IMAGES. Heart attack number one.
Heart attack number two is that after you delete the offending video file and then press PLAY the screen displays NO IMAGES, even if you have shot hundreds of raws or JPGs on the same card. The reason for this is that there are separate directories for the two types of files. The simple solution is to shoot a quick still, and now the stills directory of files becomes available. There is also a convoluted way through the menus, but life is too short to delve into Sony menu land unless one really has to.”

I know Sony is working on the release of the NEX-7 firmware update. Let’s hope Sony has already implemented the fix for the here mentioned issues! They really can’t afford to lack of support for the probably most sold Sony camera ever. The camera is on top of all sales ranking at Amazon US (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Amazon DE (Click here) and Amazon FR (Click here). Is Sony going to listen to all of these great amount of customers?

It’s pretty obvious that most SonyAlphaRumors readers are not particularly excited about the new Sony stuff. The A37, the NEX-F3 and the two newly announced slow zooms are not relevant news for us already owning NEX and Alpha cameras. I understand the call for new NEX and Alpha lenses and new FF stuff. But you should not get too frustrated. All that kind of stuff is coming within the next 3-4 months. So you really don’t have to wait a long time anymore!

Coming back to today’s announcement I have to say that overall the A37 and NEX-F3 are nice cameras. I am a bit less happy about the lenses :)

A bit more links: A37 impression video at ThePhoBlographer (Click here). Press text at Digitalcameraworld, ePhotozine.

Preorders:
A37 is available for preorder at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here)
NEX-F3 is available for preorder at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here)
Sony 18-200mm NEX lens preorder at BHphoto (Click here).
Sony 18-135mm A mount lens preorder at BHphoto (Click here).

Preorders:
A37 is available for preorder at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here)
NEX-F3 is available for preorder at Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here)
Sony 18-200mm NEX lens preorder at BHphoto (Click here).
Sony 18-135mm A mount lens preorder at BHphoto (Click here).

Previews:
A37: Dpreview, Imaging Resource, Digitalcamerareview, ThePhoBlographer, Techradar, Pocket Lint.
NEX-F3: Dpreview, Techradar, Focus Numerique (French), Imaging Resource, ThePhoBlographer, Pocket Lint.
A37 and NEX-F3 hands-on at Engadget.

Interesting notes:
If you were wondering what’s the difference between the enw 18-200mm lens and the old 18-200mm lens read Asai’s (Sony manager) statement at Amateur Photographer: “Costing £670, the new 18-200mm will be £30 cheaper than the existing version. However, it does not offer the same level of image stabilisation and its minimum close focusing distance is 30cm, compared to 50cm on the current model, said Asai.”

Image samples:
A37: Imaging Resource,
NEX-F3: Dpreview, Imaging Resource, Flickr Australia.

Press release:
A37: Dpreview, Focus Numerique (French), Photoscala (German), DC.watch (japanese).
NEX-F3: Dpreview, Focus Numerique (French), Photoscala (German), DC.watch (japanese).

Video:

POLL:
So you had now plenty of time to reader previews and watch image samples. Here is the question:

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P.S.: Sorry for the 30minutes delay after the announcement but my computer completely freezed and died. I am so frustrated, have to buy a new one I guess. This one is so old now :(

Good Morning!

Its 5am here in Europe and I am here on SAR ready to start the coverage fo the NEX-F3 and A37 release. I am also curious to see if Sony will give us some hint about the future products like lens roadmaps, A99 prototype and more….

Stay tuned! I am going to make a Coffea now ;)

a work done with the Sony A77

Fujinon 60mm F2.4 vs Sony 50mm F1.8 Sneak Peek at Photoheadonline (Click here).
100 Tips from a Professional Photographer (Gizmodo).
E-M5 versus NEX-5N versus G5 at Itmedia (Click here).
Sports Photography with the NEX-7: An exciting, humbling, frustrating, mind-blowing experience. By Matthew Durr at Steve Huff (Click here).
5 Life Lessons from 2012 Sony World Photography Award Winner Tobias Bräuning at Sony Blog (Click here).
Photography and Travel – A personal experience and some tips by Frank (Click here).
Sigma 19mm lens tested at Optyczne (Click here): “It’s a little worse than his brother’s optical focal length of 30 mm.”
Nanoha 5x macro test with the NEX-7 at Lensrentals (Click here).
Sony NEX-7 with Canon FD 28mm f/2.8 at Leica Boss (Click here).
K-5 vs NEX-5N – Round 2 at Pentaxforums (Click here).

SAR readers mail:
LG mail: “habe kürzlich nochmal die Sony NEX-7 zum Einsatz gebracht – diesmal auf eine etwas “andere Art” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv6kFLLscUo”
Panda mail: “Sigma France just told me that the new (weather sealed) 105mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro is available in Sony mount since the beginning of the week (30/04/2012).
However, the 150mm and 180mm macro lenses are not planned in Sony mount. Actually, I asked about the availability of these three macro lenses on Monday and they replied yesterday.
Since the Sony mount isn’t officially listed on Sigma’s website, I thought I could share this news.”
Cotton mail: “https://vimeo.com/41160656 . You were very kind to link to my last video shot with the A77, just wanted you to see what I did with the NEX VG-20, which I promised to do.”
OneGuy mail: “The Red (camcorder maker)  is selling OLED EVF for $3,000 http://www.red.com/store/products/red-pro-evf Looking at the specs, I am 100% sure it’s the same EVF as is on Sony’s site (not the one in A77, but the second one, 720p, one) http://www.sony.net/Products/SC-HP/cx_news/vol66/pdf/ecx331_332a.pdf $3,000 :) Gotta love the “pro” manufacturers .. they will charge “pros” $3,000 for an EVF which basically has the same technology inside  that is $350 on consumer models (5N’s external EVF). http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/819651-REG/Sony_FDA_EV1S_Electronic_Viewfinder_for_NEX_5N.html”
Jouni mail: “The following video has been shot mainly in the Sony Nex-7 camera: In April of ski trek to Sweden Abisko mountains. Hike came from the very beginning of challenges, since the second sled drawbars were forgotten at home! However, we left the hike, followed by a second sled with the tension rope …http://youtu.be/I5XFSIdIyIc?hd=1“

Image courtesy: Photoscala

Sony just issued the new Q4 report (Click here to download). During the last three months of 2011 digital camera sales fell by 22.5%. Overall Sony sold 21 Million digital cameras in 2012. That’s 3 million less than expected. A bad news but certainly not a Sony’s fault. The Thai flood affected almost all companies (Nikon, Canon and so on). The new Sony CEO Hirai wants to reinforce the imaging business and bring it back to profit within 2012.

Sony is active on three fornts, the NEX system, the APS-C system and the Full Frame system. But despite all the (well deserved) merit for launching new tehcnologies (like SLT or mirrorless) there are still many things that we are missing. Sony is still very slow in releaseing new NEX lenses while they are (too?) fast in releaseing new NEX cameras. All current FUll Frame models are disocntinued but there is no new A99 camera yet, we still need more lenses (primes and zooms) for the SLT system and so on.

Photojottings (Click here) analyzed the past and present Sony camera/lens strategy and came out with a very provocative statement: “My hope is that Sony abandons the full frame market, (too heavy, too expensive, totally unnecessary now for good images) and concentrates its resources on bringing out more inexpensive, but excellent quality lenses for its APS-C market, and making the NEX cameras capable of phase detect focusing without the adapter, with the addition of more great lenses like the [shoplink 8448]CZ 24/1.8[/shoplink], and a high quality zoom or two.”

What’s your opinion on that???

P.S:: Good Luck in finding the “old” FF DSLR:
Sony A900 [shopcountry 3032].
Sony A850 [shopcountry 3028].